Heckling Romney Abroad

Mitt Romney might have thought it was eminently sensible in an NBC
interview in London to repeat exactly what the TV networks had already
reported on security at the London Olympics, namely, that there was room
for concern.

Romney succeeded only in demonstrating how unbelievably shameless and
partisan our “objective” media can be. The networks and national
newspapers aggressively declared Romney had committed a diplomatic
fiasco overseas and repeated London tabloid headlines heckling Romney
with insults, such as “Mitt the Twit.”

Here’s what the networks said pre-Romney. On the July 24 “Good Morning
America,” ABC reporter Nick Schifrin lamented “an absolute fiasco with
the private guards who were supposed to be doing this. Police tell ABC
News they're worried those private security guards are not adequately
trained.” That same night, CBS featured an unidentified British man
complaining the transportation system was “going to be a bit of a
fiasco. And people are going to get stranded.”

On the July 17 “NBC Nightly News,” Brian Williams warned, "Ten days to
go now until the Olympic games get underway in London, and today, the
man whose company was hired to provide security at all the Olympic
venues admitted his company screwed up." A member of Parliament told NBC
it was a “humiliating shambles for the company.”

But
the same Brian Williams sat down with Romney on July 25 and asked, “And
in the short time you've been here in London, do they look ready to
your experienced eye?” Romney calmly replied it was hard to know: “There
are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the
private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of
the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something
which is encouraging.” In other words, almost exactly what Williams
reported the week before. He then went on to praise the “great
volunteers here.” But nobody heard that part of the soundbite.

The irony here? Everything Williams asked after this Olympics
question were typical hardballs: did he flip-flop on “assault weapons,”
why won’t he release more of his tax returns, even why he was a “hidden
man” about his Mormon religion. For the Romney-hating press, even the
softball questions can be turned around and accelerated to bean the
Republican.

Philip Rucker of The Washington Post announced on behalf of all
journalists that Romney would never measure up the grandeur that was the
Barack Obama European Rock Star Tour of 2008: “For any candidate on a
foreign trip, the margin for error is small, with every misstep
magnified, fairly or not — especially so for Romney, whose visit is
drawing inevitable comparisons to Barack Obama’s largely successful
foreign tour as a candidate in 2008.”

Obama appeared in Berlin to a throng of an estimated 200,000 Germans
four years ago. Back then, NBC’s Brian Williams offered shock and awe:
"Here in Berlin today, not far from where the wall once stood, the man
from Chicago, Illinois, the first ever African-American running as
presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, brought throngs of people
into the center of Berlin, streaming into this city, surging to get
close to him, to hear his message.”

Williams also surged just to get close to him, and asked Obama just how
much he would inspire Berliners: "When an American politician comes to
Berlin, we've had some iconic utterances in the past. We've had 'Ich bin
ein.' We've had, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall'....Is the
phraseology that you would like remembered: 'People of Berlin, people of
the world, this is our moment, this is our time'?"

Really. That line was forgotten within a day.

He arrived home to NBC’s Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press” asking what
Mrs. Obama would think: “When you get home and Michelle says to you,
‘Barack, what did you learn that surprised you? And did you change your
mind about anything based on this entire trip?’” Obama’s loved ones are
offered the first chance for spin control.

On CBS, morning host Chris Wragge was almost trash-talking to GOP
strategist Kevin Madden: “Got to admit, 200,000 in Berlin compared to
[McCain] speaking at a German restaurant, and you got to give the
advantage to Obama right there. So what does Senator McCain then do to
overcome this public perception that this was just beyond successful for
this last week for Obama?”

Obama was presented by the media as “beyond successful” on a daily
basis in 2008, and it’s ridiculous for the Ruckers in the media to
expect Romney to receive anything like the adulation they dumped on Hope
and Change Man the last time around. Obama-loving journalists don’t
grade Romney on a curve. They flagrantly fail him before he can barely
finish a sentence.

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